Description

This route climbs the face left of the gear/bolts route Basalt Therapy finishing up a nice aręte with great position. It’s the first route you’ll encounter as you head up the approach trail to the winter wall proper. It can be done in one long pitch or two shorter pitches. If done in one long pitch, bring ~22 draws and back clean a few in critical spots to reduce rope drag up high.

Pitch 1 (105'): Start up just below a large block with half a chalked “X” on it (I worked on this block for 10 minutes with a crow bar and while it wiggled, it wouldn’t come out) and make leftward moves to the first bolt. Loose fourth class action gets you by a couple more bolts well to the left of Basalt Therapy to preserve that route’s integrity to the roof (but resulting in bad rope drag later). Turn the roof on its left side into some dubious but easy climbing to the next bolt.

Continue up the face and shallow dihedral through a tightly bolted section (due to rock quality) to eventually work leftwards to the aręte and better rock. Strongly consider back cleaning the draw from the bolt closest to the "crack" to reduce rope drag. Continue up trending left to the cool, airy belay on faint ledge on the arete.

Pitch 2 (85'): Continue up the fun and airy aręte on increasingly better rock through some tricky sections and up to the nice-but-small belay ledge just below a roof. Metolius rap hangers will set you up for the rappel back down.

Note: We spent many hours the on a couple of weekends cleaning the route. It still has some loose surface rocks on it but the big killers have been removed (some even bounced all the way down into the sandy wash!) Expect some loose rock and a “mountaineering feel” to the route until it cleans up a little more as it sees some more traffic. We are continually impressed how much cleaning is necessary on this wall. That said, it's a safe lead now in its current state (I was just damn tired of the sketchy and scary rap in from the mesa top to the anchors).

Location

This is the left-most route on the Winter Wall proper. The start is just below the large block with the "X" chalk mark on it. There's a decent man-made belay platform at the base.

Protection

13-14 quick draws if climbing in two pitches. Bolts/carabiners atop P1. Metolious rap hangers atop P2. Rap the route in two rappels with a single 70m rope. 60m rope reportedly works, with stretch, on the P1 rappel, tie knots in the end of your rope.

Today we cleaned the route a bit more, added a bolt on pitch 1 and added a belay bolts at about 105' up on a small ledge on the arete. The route can now be done in two pitches with a single 70m rope, possibly a single 60m with stretch on the P1 rappel.

This was an exceptional route!! It seems to have cleaned up pretty good. Not quite as clean as Grape Ape but at least as clean as Naked Lunch if not better(if more people get on this it could become another Grape Ape with time). Went over to Sun Devil after this and I liked this much better overal (not as long but better rock for the whole route and still somewhat airy) I don't think any moves on the route seemed any harder than 10+ but it all just felt 5.11ish up the steep part for quite a ways. I like the 5.11- rating. Definitly 3 1/2 stars for now (I gave it 4 starts to pull the rating up) The only funky rock was the 5.10ish moves as the wall steepens before the mid-station - The rock was probably good but the moves seemed odd to me. Easy bottom stuff was clean enough. We decided to do this as a 2 pitch route just for the fun of it. If you do it as that: P1 was minimal 5.10 or 5.9+ - P2 seemed 5.10-10+ climbing the whole way. We dragged an extra route and did just one rappel. If you do Grape Ape you should get on this one too - Not PG13 anymore- DO IT!!

I'm stoked you enjoyed the route, Rich, and thanks for the kind words. After the investment in time to clean the line, I'm happy to hear it's seeing some traffic. We're heading into Diablo season now and I'm looking forward to getting back on this line and the other new additions to the area this year.

I climbed it again today and, like others that have opined about it, I feel it's 10+. I changed the rating here on MP.

Climbed Xibalba as one long pitch this Sunday. Fantastic route, particularly the upper headwall where the rock quality improved significantly. Used some long slings on the lower bolts, back cleaned a couple of draws, and didn't have any problem with rope drag. 5.10d seams reasonable, maybe 10a to the lower anchors. Happy to find a rest near the end of the crux section. Thanks for all the work putting this route up.